6 April 25 • 2019
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views

 JN exclusive
The Start-Up Nation Takes Failures in Stride

JERUSALEM 
T

wo days after our fractious, 
inward-looking election left us 
exhausted and dispirited, we 
Israelis turned our eyes skyward. The 
Beresheet project of SpaceIL, an auda-
cious, privately funded effort to land a 
probe on the moon, was 
nearing realization of its 
five-year mission. In the 
manner of everything 
Israeli, few had paid 
attention to the effort in 
the weeks and months 
leading up to the land-
ing attempt, but at “daka 
tishim” (the 90th and last minute of a 
soccer game), everyone tuned in.
Beresheet began in 2014 as an effort 
to claim Google’
s $20 million prize for 
a private landing on the moon. Despite 
displaying a mockup of the Beresheet 
(“In The Beginning”) lander in Ben-
Gurion Airport for three years, where 
hundreds of thousands walked past it, 
the project interested only a few space 
geeks. Google’
s prize went unclaimed by 
the 2018 deadline and other competitors 
dropped out, but the little Israeli space 
capsule that could chugged along. 
Beresheet’
s dramatic launch in 
February as a hitchhiker on a SpaceX 
Falcon 9 launch vehicle briefly graced 
the top of Ynet, Israel’
s largest news 

website, but it fell off the homepage a 
few hours later. Its five-week trip to the 
moon in ever-increasing concentric 
orbits didn’
t receive a fleeting mention 
during a political season that dragged us 
through muck and mire.
On April 11, though, we all tuned in 
to the live video stream from Beresheet 
headquarters. Prime Minister Benjamin 
Netanyahu sat in the front row. President 
Reuven Rivlin and scores of schoolkids 
watched from Jerusalem.
The ship left orbit successfully and 
began its descent … 25 kilometers … 
22. After its leisurely flight, Beresheet 
was careening toward the moon’
s craggy 
surface at breakneck speed. We held our 
collective breaths. The altimeter clicked 

down … 18 … 15 … 10. It wasn’
t slow-
ing. Mission control lost contact. A gasp 
escaped my daughter’
s lips. “It’
s so stress-
ful,
” she said.
Mission control regained contact. The 
crowd cheered. So did we. As the little 
ship approached the moon’
s surface, a 
bearded, kippah-clad man said, “Trying 
to start the engine.
” No luck. Trying 
again. And again. Silence. A man in the 
control room clamped his hands behind 
his head in frustration. The other engi-
neers and scientists remained glued to 
their computer monitors, typing com-
mands on their keyboards.
The speaker returned. The landing 
wasn’
t successful, he said. 
The crash brought me back to a bright 

Saturday morning in Florida more than 
16 years ago. The families of Ilan Ramon, 
Israel’
s first and only astronaut, those 
of the other astronauts and hundreds 
of others, gathered at 
Kennedy Space Center for 
the expected landing of 
Space Shuttle Columbia.
Their lives and an 
Israeli Shabbat afternoon 
calm were shattered by 
news that the shuttle had 
disintegrated upon reentry 
to Earth. 
The connection between these two 
events is more than it seems. Each time, 
Israel lifted its collective head from its 
usual immersion in the Holy Land’
s daily 
traumas. Each time, we suffered losses. 
In one case, it was seven astronauts’
 lives; 
in the latest case, it was our chance to 
claim that Israel would be the fourth 
country to land a vehicle safely on the 
moon.
The loss of Ilan Ramon left Israel 
determined to return to space. Beresheet 
was the spunky startup trying to do that. 
But we know many startups fail. We 
know that Moses didn’
t make it into the 
Promised Land. We’
ve had so many loss-
es, we know how to deal with them. We 
lifted ourselves off the ground, shrugged 
our shoulders, wiped away the tears and 
got back to work. ■

Alan D. Abbey is media director of the Shalom 
Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. He is the author 
of Journey of Hope, the Story of Ilan Ramon, 
Israel’
s First Astronaut.

Alan D. Abbey
Israelis in Tel Aviv react after watching Beresheet spacecraft fail to land safely on the moon, 

April 11, 2019.

Ilan Ramon

 AMIR LEVY/GETTY IMAGES

Yom